Angelina

OVERVIEW

Children are blessing! There are tons of beautiful things and uncountable possibilities in front them. But Angelina, a sweet 4 year-old girl, was deprived of many of these opportunities, because of her brain condition after a serious fever. At the age of 1, Angelina suffered a high fever for a 2 days, which resulted in convulsions, multiple organ failure and loss of consciousness. She was eventually required resuscitation, but she became obtunded and unable to stand up or walk ever since.

Medical Condition at Admission:

Unfortunately, the fever had damaged her brain. She went on to have seizures multiple times a day. Angelina was not able to make meaningful speech; she was only able to make simple syllables such as “D” or “M.” Her overall physical condition was not very good, and she could only hold her head up straight for a short period of time. After many years of staying in bed, Angelina not only lost the ability to stand up and walk, but also went on to a maldevelopment of the hips, which were too shallow to hold the femoral head and made hip joint dislocation likely unless properly treated. She was not able to sit because of the hip problem. Muscle tone was high in her legs, and she couldn’t bend her knees on her own, thus her torso and legs were always in an extended mode. Tendon tension of the heels was so high that Angelina had developed a ”foot drop” condition which made standing or walking almost impossible. Angelina couldn’t grasp things with her hands because of flexion contracture in her arms and hands.

Angelina’s medical condition was improved: fewer seizures (down to 2-3 brief & mild events per day a day. Her sleep and appetite improved. There was more eye contact, faster visual tracking and enhanced responses when people talking to her. She began to make single-syllable words, such as “eh, ah, da.” She also had more emotional responses. For example, the she would respond to her mother’s moods. Physically, her muscle tone improved and she became more active, reaching with her arms; bending and stretching fingers in both hands, bending knees and hips (began to make it possible to sit up with assistance.

Disclaimer: It is important to accept the fact that just as patients are different from each other in terms of age, general condition, and diagnoses, the final effects of any therapy will also vary from patient to patient. Furthermore, some effects may be noticed very soon, that many of the effects of treatment may only be seen gradually, and over a period of months.